City Times & Other Poems is a collection of new and selected poems by Vihang A. Naik (1969), who is an authentic Indian poetic voice in the contemporary scenario. He writes in English and Gujarati. His English poetry has been published in many literary journals and anthologies across India.

Naik's
poems regularly appear in literary journals, magazines like 'The
Indian P.E.N., Indian Literature, Kavya Bharati, POESIS: A Journal of
Poetry Circle, Mumbai, The Journal of Poetry Society (India), The
Journal of Indian Writing in English, The Journal of Literature and
Aesthetics, The Brown Critique and many poetry anthologies and
acclaimed e-magazines.

In
Focus

His
poetry collection includes Poetry
Manisfesto (2010),
Making A Poem
(2004) and his City
Times and Other Poems
first published in 1993. He is credited with publishing Gujarati
language collection of poems named as Jeevangeet
in 2001 which he dedicated to the cause of victims of Gujarat
Earthquake 26th
January, 2001. He also translated poetry from Gujarati language into
English. Presently he is teaching at Shree Ambaji Arts College
affliated to Hemchandracharya North Gujarat, India.

Naik
has dedicated the poetry collection to his mother and has divided it
into six parts containing 68 poems based on many themes like
religious, social, cultural, and political and economic and personal
history. These parts have been entitled as, 'Love Song of a
Journeyman', 'Mirrored Men', 'The Path of Wisdom', 'SelfPortrait', 'At
The Shore' and 'City Times.'

The
very first poem of the section, Love Song of a Journeyman' 'in
the collection is 'Your Upholding' which is subjective and
symbolic in nature. As the lines reflects:

I'd
then begun

to
hear wings

in
empty spaces.

A
song

in
the desert

of
my heart.

A
first journey.

The
other poems in this section 'includes; You revealed the edge',
'You broke Petals, 'The Flower' are subjective poems depicting
many incidents in the life of the poet and 'The world', 'How
long', 'Time' are symbolic poems.

It
seems that Naik has great love for insects and reptiles as it is
reflected in poems like, 'Spiders may have', 'Not only crab
walks', 'Chameleon is not that great' where he is telling the
story of spider, crab & chameleon. In poem, 'Man as he is,
folly' he is discussing about the various weaknesses which a man
possess, as the lines indicates:

Man
as he is, folly

vice,
error, deceit

occupies
his heart. Here

the
light is gone. Truth,

How
should he reach out

To
you with a mortal.

The
poems, 'He is different behind' and 'Bears a meaningless mark
he speaks about double-standard behaviour of human being. The poem,
'Truth is a mirror' reflects the virtue of truth which is fading
in today's life.

In
section, 'Path of Wisdom' almost all the poems viz; 'Here it is
different'; 'Do not touch rainbow', 'When you do not find,
Listen! Death knocks, 'You know, 'City is a market', 'Say
what all you can', 'The path of wisdom' seems to be
philosophical in tone. Each poem has been crafted beautifully with
philosophical blend of mine telling us about the harsh realities of
life with being symbolic in tone. This shows the philosophical
attitude of poet towards life. As the lines of the poem, 'Listen!
Death knocks' depicts:

Listen!
Death knocks

at
the door

of
your heart

or
for a moment, imagine.

The
next section, 'Self Portrait' has a single poem namely, 'I'
which has been written in a different and unique style portraying
poet's use of experimentation in poetry, as the lines indicates:

I

wake
up

to
see my

Self

This
is something which is very unique and rarely found in the field of
English Literature.

In
the section, 'At the Shore' there are poems namely, 'Distance',
'Illusion', 'Desire', 'Pleasure', 'Voice', 'Eyes'
& 'At the Shore'. All these poems reflect different natures
and virtues possessed by human-beings displaying various symbols or
metaphors such as 'octopus', 'sand', 'serpent, 'garment',
'paper kites' and 'vultures' to revealed the emotions. As the
lines of 'Desire' reveals:

the
octopus

of
desire

stirs

arteries
and veins

tears
flesh apart

feeding
upon fire

swallowing
air.

So,
in this way, he has artistically used the metaphor of octopus, a sea
animal to describe desire. He seems to believe that as octopus has 8
legs and if it catches a prey, he tears him very badly and same is
the case with the desire of human beings which once caught will ruin
him forever.

The
last section, 'City Times' consists of poems describing about
various cities of his state and around the world. 'A Broken Song'
and 'After Innocence' are highly symbolical in tone reflecting
mis-happening and incidents of the past when massacre of many
innocent had taken place around the world.

'On
visiting grandfather's house' is a subjective poem depicting
Poet's nostalgic attitude. He conveys his feelings about his
grandfather whom he misses a lot and his city which has changed a
lot.

In
'A sympathiser for underdogs' he has described about his city and
has reflect his feelings for the poor people living there. There are
poems like, 'Evening' , 'City Voice' & 'Midnight City'
in which he is talking
about the change which are taking place in his city also the scenes
of evening and midnight both in materialistic form and scenic beauty.

Naik
has deep love and passion for poetry which is quite reflected in the
poetry collection. His poems are enriched with the use of various
natural and metaphysical metaphors and symbols. His reflection of
philosophy when needed is quite praiseworthy. Almost all the poems in
the collection are written in free verse.

The
poet has reflected his innermost feelings and experience on various
issues of vital importance related to our existence and survival on
this universe and has dealt successfully with some religious, social,
cultural, and emotional themes in the book.

The
poems in the collection are creative pieces reflecting writer's
imagination, emotional intensity, intellect and his attitude towards
life. There is fine balance of themes which have been placed with
experimentation.

All
the poems in the collection reflect the writer's experience and
demonstrate feeling even beyond their experiences. It is a literary
gift for the lovers of Indian English Poetry.